Lakeland Players tie up dinner theater with Rope at Lafayette Grand in Pontiac

FYI

The Lakeland Players present a dinner-theater production of “Rope” Feb. 26 & 28 and March 1-2 at Lafayette Grande Banquet Facility, 1 Lafayette St., Pontiac. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at http://lakelandplayers.net or by phone, 248-988-0098. Performance times can be found online.

Patrick Hamilton’s murder thriller “Rope” comes to life in a dinner-theater performance at the Lafayette Grande Banquet Facility.

Written in 1929, it was thought that Hamilton loosely based his play on the Leopold and Loeb case of 1924, in which two wealthy law students from Chicago kidnapped and murdered an innocent 14-year-old boy for sport.

Craig Dane, director of the Lakeland Players show, says Leopold and Loeb thought they were “intellectually superior to the common man and felt they could tell people if they live or die.” He adds that Hamilton never admitted to basing his play on the murder case.

Set in 1929 London, the curtain opens with Wyndham Brandon, played by Matthew Jarjosa, and Charles Granillo, played by Matthew Szakal, strangling an innocent man with a rope. They then host a dinner party with the body hidden in the room.

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Dane says he had the idea about a year ago to do this play, which is his directorial debut.

“Of course I’ll be nervous, but exhilarated to do it,“ he says.

Taking a turn from acting, he says directing is different because all the work is put in beforehand, then he can sit back and watch the performance unfold. After putting in a solid four months of work to cast and rehearse the play, “as soon as opening night comes, my job is done,” he says.

Lakeland Players is a community theater group that has provided a hub for actors, actresses and directors of all skill levels to come together for 55 years.

Jarjosa, who is taking acting classes at Oakland Community College, got involved with Lakeland Players in 2010 with his role in “Sweeney Todd.”

Playing the lead killer, Jarjosa said this is the biggest role he’s had in his acting career, with more complexity and layers to the character.

“You don’t play the ‘bad guy,’ your character thinks what he is doing is completely justified, so you have to justify it for yourself and play that,” he said. “I can’t play it like he’s evil, I have to play him like I’m doing the right thing in my mind.”

Along with Brandon, Charles Granillo assists in the murder but is less at ease about it. Latching on with his co-conspirator, Szakal said his character is “unsure of everything he does and tries to mask it but the veil is very thin.”

In his first performance with Lakeland Players, Szakal said the role of a “less composed” murderer is a challenge.

He said Lakeland Players has given him a sense of community with people he can trust and have a good chemistry with; people who strengthen each other’s performances.

Known for his suspenseful films, in 1948 Alfred Hitchcock directed his own version of the play, staring Jimmy Stewart.

To capture the feel of a play on film, Hitchcock filmed the entire play in continuous takes, using 10-minute reels, Dane says. If anything went wrong, Hitchcock would start from scratch for one continuous scene, as if on stage.

Dane said his first love is old films, and he screened the film the first day he cast the play to give the cast a feel for the production.

“It’s an honor not only to direct but be in a venue like this,” he says.

Built in 1923 as the Masonic Temple Lodge No. 21, The Lafayette Grande Banquet Facility is registered with the U.S. Department of the Interior and Michigan State Historical Preservation Offices as a historical landmark.